Nikola Tesla – Knowledge, Thought, Work, Education

Nikola Tesla (1856–1943) – Knowledge, Thought and Work
Nikola Tesla’s Self-Education with References to His Schooling

Engineering, electrical and mechanical, is positive in results. There is scarcely a subject that cannot be mathematically treated and the effects calculated or the results determined beforehand from the available theoretical and practical data.

I had studied a dozen languages, delved in literature and art, and had spent my best years in ruminating through libraries and reading all sorts of stuff that fell into my hands. I thought to myself, what a terrible thing it was to have wasted my life in those useless efforts. If I had only come to America earlier and devoted all my brain power to inventive work, what might I have done? In later life though I realized I would not have produced anything without the scientific training I got, and it is a question whether my theory as to
my possible accomplishment was correct.

My first year’s showing had won me the appreciation and friendship of several professors. Among these were Prof. Rogner, who was teaching arithmetical subjects and geometry; Prof. Poeschl, who held the chair of theoretical and experimental physics, and Dr. Allè, who taught integral calculus and specialized in differential equations. This scientist was the most brilliant lecturer to whom I ever listened. He took a special interest in my progress and would frequently remain for an hour or two in the lecture room, giving me problems to solve, in which I delighted. To him I explained a flying machine I had conceived, not an illusionary invention, but one based on sound, scientific principles, which has become realizable thru my turbine and will soon be given to the world.

Nikola Tesla